Protestant Mothers and Catholic Sisters: Gender Concerns in Anti-Catholic Conspiracy Theories, 1830-1860
This paper analyzes how some Protestant women—principally Sarah Hale, Mary Lyon, and especially Catharine Beecher—exploited general fears of Catholic conspiracies to advance their cause of female education. They argued for greater Protestant support for female education and mobilized evangelical wom...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2000
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| In: |
American catholic studies
Year: 2000, Volume: 111, Issue: 1/4, Pages: 1-21 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This paper analyzes how some Protestant women—principally Sarah Hale, Mary Lyon, and especially Catharine Beecher—exploited general fears of Catholic conspiracies to advance their cause of female education. They argued for greater Protestant support for female education and mobilized evangelical women volunteers in the Northeast into various educational societies dedicated to establishing female schools and female teachers in the American West. By focusing on the challenge from convent schools, Hale, Lyon, and Beecher joined various nativist ministers, editors, authors, and politicians in warning American Protestants against the supposed dangers posed by Roman Catholic nunneries. At the same time, these women departed from their male associates by also finding several appealing features to Catholic sisterhoods. To these female convent competitors, the convent appeared not only as a menace but also a model, the positive aspects of which Protestants should emulate to the benefit of true religion and true womanhood in the American Republic. |
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| ISSN: | 2161-8534 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American catholic studies
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